In 1989, Bean joined the cast of The Jim Henson Hour, appearing in both the control room and "televised" portions of the MuppeTelevision segments. Although his fellow Muppets often found him to be insufferably cute, the MuppeTelevision ratings were never higher than when the station featured sex, violence and/or Bean Bunny. Whenever Bean was yelled at, particularly by Kermit, he became very scared and whimpered, mostly due to his youth and his sensitivity to noise, a common trait he shares with real bunny rabbits.

Frank Oz once said of the character, "Jim built a character named Bean Bunny, so people could think he’s cute, and take the onus off of the others[.] But, it didn’t work — they still thought the others were cute."[1]